


Days 5 & 6: Decorating and Nostalgia

by Rellwen



Series: Advent Challenge 2015 [5]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Breakdown Can't Even Christmas Lights, Christmas Decorations, Decorating for Christmas, Gen, General Sillieness, Old memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 17:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5383388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellwen/pseuds/Rellwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Christmas Season is well underway. Knock Out decides to give the medbay a little festive flare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Days 5 & 6: Decorating and Nostalgia

In retrospect it probably should have been more surprising when the massive tree showed up on the nemsis. By the time he saw it, stumping in with the rest of the troops from the mine, Knock Out was too tired to muster up more than being mildly impressed at the height. He was tired and his joints were stiff from the cold. He needed a wash, a paint touch up, and recharge. Not necessarily in that order.

Several solar cycles after the Battle of Greenland, the medic found himself gaping up at the massive, now fully decorated, organic centerpiece. It was festooned with garland and tinsel and little baubles. Hundreds of yards of little blinking lights peeked out from the branches casting little halos of color. Even Knock Out could admit It was beautiful. 

He took a moment to marvel that just an orbital cycle ago the colossal evergreen would have been considered an infestation and probably be on fire by now. How different things had become around this holiday.

Knock Out wasted no more time. He made his way around the tree to the supply storage. The vehicon on duty recognised him and set about gathering several packages, “Here are your requisitioned materials, doctor.” 

“Why thank you,” He descreetly checked the trooper’s IDC - 9I135, “Giles.” he added and accepted the stack of boxes.

The vehicon, Giles, perked up, seemed pleasantly surprised, visor brightening noticeably. “Would you like any help carrying those, sir?” he offered.

Temporarily shifting the load to one hand Knock Out waved him off, “This is nothing.”

The walk to medbay was short and uneventful. 

Upon entry, the red mech was greeted by four smiling faces. Or at least he assumed they were. Breakdown had been telling a story to three vehicons seated on various surfaces in the room.

Knock Out recognised Atlas but not the other two, “Hello,” He greeted settling into his casual business persona, “Who might you be?”

The two unfamiliar vehicons sat a bit straighter, “I am ground forces. Designation: 011I3.” The first one recited.

“I am a mine worker. Designation: T3514.” The other quickly followed.

Atlas snickered, “It’s alright.” He said waving a hand dismissively, “This is Ollie the third. And this is Tesla. He’s the one who led the breakaway force in the battle.” the vehicon introduced.

Placing the boxes on his desk, Knock Out quirked a smile, “Ollie the third?”

Ollie, currently perched on the edge of a medical berth, swung his pedes anxiously, “Yeah. When we get offlined they recycle our IDCs. I’m the third one to be assigned this code. I just want others to know that they weren't forgotten. It’s nice to think that when we go, we won’t be either.” He shrugged.

“Atlas, how many 4T145’s have there been?” Knock Out wondered, “How many T3514’s?”

Atlas shook his head, “I don’t know…”

It was a long moment before Tesla piped up, “Fifteen.” he sounded subdued, “I am the sixteenth mech to be branded T3514.”

An heavy silence descended on the room. 

Breakdown clapped his hands together. “So!” His voice rang out too loud in the quiet, “Are we here to decorate or what?”

\---

Turns out most human decorations are tiny, fiddly, and evil. 

After the third time untangling christmas lights from Breakdown’s gears Knock Out firmly banished him from light hanging. Atlas and Tesla took over the job. One mech would wrap the lights around a bristly silver garland, the other hung it up with pegs. It all went well until the whole strand winked out for no apparent reason.

After panicking a little, attempting what could qualify as minor surgery on cybertron, and a brief 'internet' search, the duo managed to figure out that it was probably just a burned out bulb. "Seriously?" Tesla complained, "We literally just got these!" They set about checking every single teeny tiny bulb for which little fragger was the one holding up the line.

Meanwhile Ollie was trying to construct cranberry and popcorn garlands for the tree. As the red stains on his servos and pile of crumbly white debris would testify, he was not doing a very good job. The poor mech yelped as he jabbed himself in the finger with the needle yet again.

“We are not hanging those in my med bay.” Knock Out declared.

“Why not?” Breakdown asked peering into his little box wondering if he was missing some offensive thing or logical reasoning. All he saw was a crate of carefully packed red aluminum spheres.

“That color’s dreadful. We’re using these.” Knock Out presented a similar box of spheres. His were a royal blue, some with silver detailing.

“But its christmas.” The larger mech protested, “Red and green are the colors of the season.”

Knock Out looked affronted, “Blue is a perfectly christmasy color!” He pulled one sphere out admiring in in the light, “See, isn’t this the most beautiful color?”

“I like these ones better.” Breakdown maintained with a shark like grin he held one up near his partner’s helm, “It matches your eyes.”

“That’s the problem you twit!”

“Oh because blue’s so much better.”

“You know,” Atlas called from where he stood with two other highly amused looking vehicons, “You could just hang both.”

“Or purple.” Tesla suggested.

And so - after several shattered, punctured, crushed, tangled, torn, accidentally ingested, or otherwise mangled ornaments - it came to be that the med bay was strung in red and blue. The silver garland wrapped the perimeter of the room with a scalloped pattern. Belled ribbons were placed periodically on the peaks of the garland. Each berth was given a string of lights around the bottom edge. And in the corner a small synthetic tree stood decorated with the lights and round metal balls favoured by earth. Interspersed with the traditional ornaments, Breakdown had placed more personal items. 

There were little spheres carved with maps of from before the war, small sculptures, Little cogs and jewels collected over the years. They were old relics from a time long since passed. These were things Knock Out knew his partner had kept all this time as a reminder of what they were fighting for. Things he never wanted to forget. 

Seeing Breakdown with the vehicons sitting around the tree sparked a swell of emotion in the red mech. They were so joyful and carefree as they swapped stories and sang songs. It was like seeing an echo of the mechs they used to be Before. Even if he knew it had to be temporary, Knock Out wished he could take this moment and make it last forever. To keep that big silly smile on Breakdown’s face. To never have to see him hurt again, never see him stumble under the weight this war has put on everyone’s shoulders. As terribly sentimental as it sounds, that was the only thing Knock Out would really wish for, for christmas. 

Disappearing into the back room for a few kliks Knock Out returned with yet another metal sphere in hand. This one was smooth and black with a complicated mesh of lines littering the surface. Some were thin some were thick, some curved, some sliced straight across, some glowed a faint blue, some glowed red, and still others purple. At a glance the lines were chaotic and meaningless. But Knock Out knew better. 

This was a perfectly recreated global map of Velocitron, overlaid with an equally diligent mapping of Cybertron. When viewed under magnification miniscule city maps could be seen. The amount of detail and expertise put into this piece was almost pitiful when compared to the emotion and purpose that drove the artisan to create it. 

Knock Out smiled brushing a thumb over the surface. He thought back to the day he first got the little ball. During training Knock Out had gotten a lot of trouble from the other students for his heritage. ‘Velocitronians didn’t care about anything but spinning their tires and buffing their finish.’ Or so the average cybertronian seemed to think. What could the road-rat possibly want with a proper medical school? It had been rough. But whenever he cracked Breakdown was always there to pull him back together. 

After graduating at the top of his class, Knock Out got a placement almost right away. One that would take him far far away from his partner. Breakdown had spent dozens of orns working on the details. Knock Out still remembers how nervous the, then not quite so huge, mech had looked while he explained his gift. “It’s just that...You’re going pretty far away, Red. And I won’t be around so I wanted you to take this. Its the maps from both of our homes. I found they kinda fit together well…” Here he chuckled and scratched at the back of his head, “I just wanted to show you… I mean I guess…” He stumbled over his own words for a klik then vented a sigh. He took a moment. Seeming to pluck up his courage, gather his thoughts. Looking the medic straight in the eye he said, “I don’t care what those other bots think and neither should you. You’re beautiful and talented and better than they are in every way. I don’t care where you’re from you’ll always have a place with me.” He passed the ball to Knock Out, placing it firmly in his servo, “I won’t always be there anymore. But when times get rough you can look at this, see the blue and the red, see both our homes. And you can know that i’ll be thinkin about you.”

Knock Out had pulled him into a hug so fierce he almost crushed the new gift, “Thank you Breakdown.”

Not long after Knock Out shipped off the rebellion started. 

Coming back to the present aboard the nemesis Knock Out took the little sphere that had gotten him through the absolute worst times in his life. His symbol of hope. His something to fight for. His silent wishes for when they returned to cybertron - even if it wasn’t his ‘home’ planet. And hung it on the tree - this stupid imitation of an organic symbol wonder and miracles - and dared to let himself hope.

A large servo wrapped around his and gave a gentle squeeze. He smiled and allowed his partner to pull him in. Resting against the broad chassis Knock Out entwined their fingers.

Together, with their new triad of friends they watched the little blinking lights bring the tree to life.

**Author's Note:**

> The two prompts just fit together so well I put them in the same story. The most nostalgic part of Christmas for me is decorating. Every year we pull out all these ornaments we’ve collected or made over the years and I just remember all the Christmases we’ve had with them. So I tried to put a bit of that in here. This was supposed to be cute and fluffy but it got a bit sad at the end, Sorry >.


End file.
